If you are looking for cable to connect the things with each other, than try to contact the army. I don't know how it is in the other country's, but in Switzerland the army is selling their stuff from time to time.

We bought 2800 m (2 x 800m, 2x 200m, 2x 400m)cable for our alge timing for 30 CHF => 20 Euro ! From time to time they sell their floodlight which were used in some catastrophes.
We had it in Grueningen last year. It's enough light to make a slalom comp in the night.

What you get for 175$ is not really clear...
At first look I was thinking it was exaclty the same as MyChron or other car racing lap timer.
(place the beacons where you want witout cable. The stopwatch start when the IR receiver that you put on your board cross the IR light of the first beacon and stop when it stop when crossing the second beacon -> good for practice )

But in fact it's seems to be some classic IR sensor gates that you connect with cables to a stopwatch, isn't it?
The $175.00 system has only one gate, work for lap.
So for skateboard racing we need the XR3000 Seperate Start/finish advaned timing system at $275.00.

I used my XR3000 for the Dublin Outlaw race yesterday and it performed flawlessly for 6+ hours. The batteries appear to have plenty of juice left. I highly recommend this timer....um, that's all for now.

Tom's system did work flawlessly at the Dublin race. We actually ran a Trakmate and one of Pat Chewnings systems belonging to Bobby Mandarino simultaneously and they were all similar. We were able to run the tape strips for the Trakmate and the other system on the same cable using splitters.

The only thing I would change about the Equine system is to lower the beams to knee height or ankle to correct for the opportunity to break the beam with an extended body part. I understand that white socks/pants can cause the eyes not read so it would need to be a little higher and/or nerds will not be allowed to ride...(just joking...that would cut out a great deal of slalom competitors)....

This system is by far the most economical and easiest to set up system for single lane timing. It would be absolutely the best for practice sessions. While we were rolling out the cable, taping down the tape strips, testing and connecting all of the splitters, Tom had his system up, operational, and ready to use. I am seriouls considering buying one just to have for practice sessions/training with the crew. It also is easier to move around so it is perfect again for practicing different course set ups. I can not see where this system could be modified for dual lane but I don't know crap about electronics (Ask Tway, Cnova, and Cfav).

Marion Karr wrote:Tom's system did work flawlessly at the Dublin race. We actually ran a Trakmate and one of Pat Chewnings systems belonging to Bobby Mandarino simultaneously and they were all similar. We were able to run the tape strips for the Trakmate and the other system on the same cable using splitters.

Did you happen to capture races on all 3 systems simultaneously? It would be very interesting to see if all 3 timers gave similar-enough results.

Do either the Trackmate or the Equine timing system have the capability to enter the time directly into a spreadsheet?

Did you happen to capture races on all 3 systems simultaneously? It would be very interesting to see if all 3 timers gave similar-enough results.

Do either the Tracmate or the Equine timing system have the capability to enter the time directly into a spreadsheet?

Pat, we did run them simultaneously on the the first three rounds of the days racing and their times were exceptionally close. We actually had two tape strips side by side at start and finish and were actually able to run both of the finish strips off of the same real of wire.

Neither the Trakmate 4.1 I have or the Equine System does have that interface with the spread sheet. However, if you go to their website (listed above) they do have a version that sends data to a laptop in the former of a large clock/timer. I suspect that the data used to make that work could be reconfigured to interface with a spread sheet application (take that with a grain of salt, I don't crap about electronics).

I saw your other post regarding the delay capabilities for the timer beams. That is interesting.

I will say it again, the equine timer would be great for practice and single lane jams. I am definitely going to purchase one for those times when I don't have the time or need for all the capabilities of my Trakmate.

After reading Pat's post on ncdsa about the delay circuit, I took a closer look at my timer. There IS actually about a 1 second delay after the beam has been broken before it resets. I did a handswipe test and am able to break the beam a couple of times after an initial swipe before it restarts the timer.....So now that I've eaten my words, I'll set it a knee height and see what happens. Perhaps Rusty's height recommendation is based on his experience with horses.

It'll be interesting to see if Rusty can upgrade this timer's capabilities ie; dual, wireless, spreadsheet compatible, etc...and still keep costs down.

I just purchased mine this weekend. The service so far has been excellent, Rusty told me exactly everything I'd need for Slalom racing and was real friendly.

I have a question though that maybe you guys can help me with, since I am electroniclly challenged. I opted to buy the 1000 ft. cable on my own since it would be cheaper. I emailed Tom and he told me any 2 way copper wire would work, the thicker the better.

So I went on Ebay, and there's all types of deals on all different types of wire. It seems I can get 1000 feet of telephone wire real cheap, would this be what I need? There seems to be outdoor telephone wire too, but its alot more price wise. I don't think I would be setting up the timer in the rain, so is this really that important, or can I get away with the regular telephone wire?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but like I said, I am electroniclly stupid.

Hey Bob, I think I actually might have quite a few hundred feet of 2 way copper wire sitting in my basement (who the heck knows why)... If I have it, I'll let you know and you can take it off my hands.

Spoke to Rusty a few days ago about his timing system and have one in my hands just a week later. Plan to use it for the Hyde Park practice sessions over here in London.

As a techno-Luddite, I wondered about a few things.

Firstly, there was a rattle from one of the timing sensors.
Turns out that this was just a loose battery and was easily inserted back into the pincer holder in the unit.

Setup was easy, no soldering required. A cable goes from the 'start' sensor to a junction box; connection is via mini jack. Same goes for the 'finish' sensor.' A third cable goes into the stopwatch, then you line up the sensor beam reflectors and that's it.

On trying this out in the kitchen I found there to be an operational delay. This is so that once breaking the beam with the front leg, ther timer is not immediately reset with the back leg.

Here's how Rusty explained it:

That reset function is actually a 3.5 second delay.
It prevents anything from breaking the beam less than three seconds after the first break.

It has several functions.
The most important of which is that lets say you are timing a skate boarder at knee height, and he goes through with his legs apart. Our system is easily capale of registering two distinct beam interruptions 2 or 3 milliseconds apart.

Since we had to build a circuit for that delay anyway, why not make it a few seconds long. that way if you are timing kids on horseback walking through the beam, or anything moving slowly it will also give you plenty of leeway.

It's not near as much fun to play with. But we thought you would appreciate no false starts on show day better.

It also acts as dust protection on dirt tracks.
say the car breaks the beam, and two or three seconds behind him is comes a huge coud of dust that can easily interfere with the infrared beam. Well, during that three second delay, the dust arrives, and if that dust were to break the beam again, the delay would reset again and continue to refuse to allow anything to trip the watch until the beam has been reestablished for at least three seconds.

So to fully understand it.
Break the beam, the watch starts, count to 2 and break it again, nothing happens. The red light comes on, but the watch does not stop. Now count to 4, and listen closely, you will hear the relay click. Now you can break the beam, and stop the watch.

Also remember, The watch does not care which is the starting line, and which is the finish.
Each time you break either beam you have electronically pushed the stopwatch button.
As long as the delay is going on, the button remains pushed. Go ahead, break the beam, and then try and use the button maunally, nothing will happen. (at least for the start/stop button not the lap button.

You can see just how long the delay is by resetting the watch to zero.
Then break the beam. Then start pushing the stop button over and over until the watch stops.
Just holding the button down will not have the same effect.

But what I wanted to increase the delay for some reason.
Break the beam, and then hold the stopwatch button down. now you can break the beam without it registering on the watch. But this only works if you pushed the button during the delay, and held it down the whole time.

Anyway, more than you ever wanted to know about the reset.
Glad it seems to be working.

Rusty

Because he'd been so helpful, I thought I'd test him further and asked whether the system is waterproof and shock resistant. It all looked a little flimsy to me. Here's the reply:

While it is not intended for underwater use, It will handle a rain storm without issue.
And even if it were submerged, if you allow it to dry before you turn it on again, it would probably be OK.

As for stray skateboarders, I think it will handle most things OK.
We like to say is guaranteed against anything but a slow moving trailer or a fast moving appaloosa.

Absolutely worst case is to break a solder joint.
The sensors themselves are designed for industrial use, you could run over it woth your car and not cause a problem.

I would be careful not to let the stopwatch get wet. especially around the hole for the plug.

Rusty

Tried it out in Hyde Park yesterday evening and it claimed that Mick Reiss is two hundredths faster than me.